Everyone knows New York traffic is impossible. That’s why I hardly ever drive. Doesn’t matter that I’m on the train an hour a day each way, halfway crowded half the way and then squished in the rest, that definitely beats the two hours I’d be stuck in the car coming in and going out of the city. It’s a big city, and a big city is going to be slow to get around. There’s just that many people. Nothing you can do about it.

What you can do something about, though, is trucks. I don’t drive into the city for work, as I said, but when I do drive (on weekends mostly), the trucks heading into the city are just impossible. They hog all the lanes. One of them is always driving ten miles under the speed limit, the next one is taking up a lane going just one mile faster, and the fast lane has always got a truck speeding fifty miles too fast trying to run everyone down.

Someone needs to do something about this. I know they’ve got places to go and we need them, I accept all that pretty philosophically, but I just can’t stand to see them take up the entire highway. Always, and I mean always, I’ll then see a cop has some dinky little car pulled over a mile down the road. What was the dinky car doing that these trucks aren’t? I think there’s an issue there that people don’t want to look into. Are the cops looking the other way for a reason? I don’t know, but I would like to.

Anyway, I just want to take a moment and vent about this stuff. I nearly got run off the road the other day when a trucker realized almost too late that a lane was closing. There were all the normal warnings, but the guy kept going, not speeding up or slowing down, no turn signal. Then, right when the lane ended, he tried to merge right into me. Lucky for me, the next lane had just enough room to squeeze my (dinky) car in, otherwise, I’d be squished on the side of the New York highway instead of writing this.

Doing just the least bit of research, I discovered that truck accidents are stunningly common and pretty catastrophic when they occur.

Again, all I’m saying is something needs to be done about this. New York is a great place to live and work. I love it here, and I know there are sacrifices required to live in and around a big city. I accept the traffic, the crime, the lack of space, the noise. I just don’t want to be squashed when I’m out in my car. I want to be able to drive on my rare free weekends and not have to worry about massive 18-wheelers running me down. Is that so much to ask?

Divorce is a nasty thing, and it is not something most people want to talk about. Even so, it is incredibly common. It is a frequently cited fact that approximately half of all marriages end in divorce. While all divorces are unpleasant, among the most emotionally taxing are those that involve children. While many (former) couples are able to come to some sort of agreement involving visitation, it is incredibly common that one parent ends up with primary custody, leaving the other parent with maybe as little as one weekend a month. But wait, it gets worse! When it comes to child support payments, many of the noncustodial parents in North Carolina are not paying, making an often tense situation even worse.

According to this North Carolina news site, even as recently as 2015, millions of dollars worth of child support payments had gone unpaid. In addition, from the five years leading up to 2015, only 65% of the child support payments had been collected. According to demographics from The Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, the overwhelming majority of custodial parents that are eligible to receive child support are women: 89%. As far as North Carolina is concerned, this means that most of the remaining 35% of funds yet to be collected are not going to the women who need it. In addition, 29% of those eligible are below the federal poverty level, so these families rely extremely heavily on the funds provided by child support: up to 45% of a family’s income in some cases. These poor families who do not receive their payments end up costing the taxpayer since they make greater use of food stamps and other forms of aid. The reason cited for these nonpayments is that noncustodial parents either do not have jobs or the ones they do pay far too little to sustain both themselves and their child. Of course, even with wage garnishing and a court order, many people are still refusing to pay for support due to poor enforcement, and some people who owe support may never end up paying the full amount.

Add in the fact that North Carolina legal aid funding has been cut, and those suffering from poverty have few options when it comes to divorce lawyers in Raleigh that can help soon-to-be-ex couples sort out their most valuable assets: their children. The reassuring portion of this news is that of the remaining funds, most will still go to victims of domestic violence and for child custody cases. Even so, North Carolina needs to make a greater effort in ensuring that non-custodial parents pay their fair share for child support. Raising the minimum wage so that more people are incentivized to get jobs and stay off of the welfare system might be a great start. It should also be a requirement that the custodial parent has a full-time job as well, to ensure that both parents are putting in everything they can.

According to Karlin, Fleisher & Falkenberg, LLC, by the time a product finally makes its way into the hands of the consumer, one of the most basic assumptions we should be able to make is that the product will be safe. While most products end up being completely risk-free as long as they are used as intended, dangerous products do make their way to market and cause people to sustain serious, if not life-threatening, injuries every year.

Consumers holding the belief that the products they purchase are safe and without defects is the most normal thing about manufacturer and consumer relationship. This trust is not just rooted on consumers’ knowledge of the legal responsibility of manufacturers to ensure that their products are never sources of harm (injury or illness), but also complies with the standard of quality that they themselves have implemented and observe, to protect the reputation they have built for their company.

In reality, however, despite the laws, standard of quality, reputation, and the watchful eyes of government authorities and company managers, flawed or defective products still slip through quality control, find their way in stores, and made available to billions of consumers. As a result, every year, thousands of product liability claims, also called tort lawsuits, against manufacturers of harmful products are filed by consumers due to the injury they sustain from the use of these products.

With millions of defective, harmful products available in the market, the list is an endless one. A number of things on this list are nursery items, children’s toys, electronic gadgets, and household appliances and furniture. These products, by the way, are limited to things that fall under the control of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Other products fall under the regulation of specific government agencies, like:

Food, medical devices, drugs and cosmetics being under the Food and Drug Administration;

Aircraft, which is managed by the Federal Aviation Administration;

Automobiles, which are managed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration;

Alcohol, tobacco & tobacco products, which are under the jurisdiction of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau; and,

Firearms and ammunition, which is under the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

When a product injures anyone, especially a child, all those involved in the chain of distribution, the manufacturer, the distributor and the retailer, can be named as defendants in a civil or tort lawsuit.

Though office workers can still be at risk of dust exposure, it can be said that those who work in agriculture, carpentry, construction, manufacturing, and mining are more vulnerable to dust because of the nature of their work and the materials they work with.

But why is dust exposure so dangerous? Because it can have various negative effects on the body. These effects can be divided into two – short-term and long-term effects. Though long-term effects are generally worse, either category can be detrimental to its sufferer’s health.

Short-term Effects

Dust particles are particularly dangerous for the eyes, skin, and respiratory system.

Eyes – Eyes can capture particles and may be irritated. This can be a minor inconvenience, but the temporary compromised vision during irritation should not be overlooked, because it can lead to workplace accidents.

Skin – Like the eyes, the skin may be vulnerable to irritation. This is particularly true if the particles involved are chemically-induced, because they may have an increased chance of causing itching, reddening, and even scaling.

Respiratory System – The dust may be small enough to be inhaled, creating breathing problems due to dust buildup in the airways. If the victim already has a respiratory problem, such as asthma, he or she may also experience an episode.

Long-term Effects

These complications develop after prolonged dust exposure, often amounting in decades. There are also instances where symptoms don’t arise immediately, making them more dangerous. Like the short-term effects, long-term effects often involve the skin and respiratory system.

Skin – Chemicals found in some particles may cause skin cancer. This doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it is often a severe case.

Respiratory System – There are numerous complications that can be sustained from dust exposure, such as asthma, pneumonia, and lung cancer.

Prevention

An employer is legally and morally obligated to ensure that the risk of the workplace is minimized, even if the workplace can be considered inherently dangerous. There are numerous ways to achieve this. For example, RoboVent has ventilation systems that may reduce the risk of dust exposure.

But prevention is not always about complicated engineering solutions. Sometimes, it is merely about simple safety procedures, such as giving protective gears to employees so they don’t get direct exposure or maintaining the facility so it doesn’t experience dust buildup.

Getting involved in a traffic accident can be a traumatic experience, and you may not know what to do because you are still clouded by disbelief and shock. But you should not be. There are basic tips you can follow directly after a car accident, ensuring that you are doing the right thing to protect your best interests.

Stay Calm
Take a deep breath and calm yourself. The accident may already be bad in itself, and you don’t want to make it worse by clouding your own judgment. You can make better decisions if your mind is at ease.

Don’t leave the scene
The worst thing you could do in an accident scene is leave. If someone has been injured or killed, you may even face hit-and-run charges. Stay at the scene and secure it, to preserve important factors such as evidence and witnesses.

Check for injuries and other damages
Assess yourself for any injury and ask the other occupants regarding their situation. Also, check for other damages that have been sustained in the accident, such as car damage and road damage. Since your mind is calm, you will be able to grasp the situation easily and act accordingly.

Call the authorities
Auto accidents are not something you should handle on your own even if you are calm. Call the police to investigate, assist, and neutralize any violent disagreements between the parties involved. It is also wise to call an ambulance, especially if you are not sure if somebody has been injured.

Get important information
According to the website of the Philadelphia car accident lawyers at Zavodnick, Zavodnick & Lasky, LLC, negligent parties who have caused car accidents and injuries may be held liable. To keep in touch with parties that could possibly be at fault, it is important to get their information, such as their names, addresses, contact numbers, and license plate numbers.

Remember that these things are done directly after a car accident, as there are many other things you should do beyond the car accident scene, such as calling for your insurance, taking care of medical costs, and evaluating the damage to your property. The key is to stay calm to avoid further damages.